Has anyone shot a really long time lapse? I'm shooting one of my garden for the next five months or so. I've built a box to protect the camera from the elements and put a door on the front (which is glass) to keep out most of the light when I'm not shooting and I'm wondering if it's worth exposing a frame before and after each exposure (two a day) with the lens cap on so that the exposed frames that I want are always inside the cartridge, except for the several seconds before and after I expose the black (lens cap on) frames. Am I being crazy, or is this a good precaution to take? I should mention my camera is a Nizo 4056 in good shape that doesn't seem to have any light leaks, but then I've never cared much about the first frame I expose.
Thanks,
Bruce
long time lapse
Moderator: Andreas Wideroe
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greenplastic79
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Alex
I'd shoot more than a frame or two a day. I'd also be concerned about the shifting angle of light from the sun. If your goal is showcasing the growth of your garden, you want to try and avoid annoying shadows that suddenly pop in and pop out every couple of frames.
I would agree about your concern as it relates to only shooting one frame or two a day. I'd do a burst of one second a day and then simply choose the best one, two or three consecutive frames and combine them on a daily basis when editing the finished piece.
I'd also be concerned if direct sunlight hits your camera box on a daily basis generating a lot of heat. Also, can you take the film out without moving the camera at all?
It might be wiser to burn through a film every couple of weeks so that all your eggs aren't in basket, so to speak.
I would agree about your concern as it relates to only shooting one frame or two a day. I'd do a burst of one second a day and then simply choose the best one, two or three consecutive frames and combine them on a daily basis when editing the finished piece.
I'd also be concerned if direct sunlight hits your camera box on a daily basis generating a lot of heat. Also, can you take the film out without moving the camera at all?
It might be wiser to burn through a film every couple of weeks so that all your eggs aren't in basket, so to speak.
long time lapse
Thanks for the responses. I don't know why I've been stuck on shooting only a frame or two a day. I guess if I'm going to this much trouble to shoot this, then it's not that big of a deal to spend some editing time on the end. Unfortunately I only constructed a door on the back of the box (for viewing) and on the left side (for using the controls), so I guess I'll do a little re-constructing so I can get to the film door on the right side and use more film so I can be sure things are going ok over time.
As far as heat is concerned, I thought a little about that and left the plywood the box is constructed from its natural color, only coating it with polyurethane to protect from rain, as this color will reflect more of the sun's rays than than black would. Maybe I'll build some sort of shading device over it, too.
- Bruce
As far as heat is concerned, I thought a little about that and left the plywood the box is constructed from its natural color, only coating it with polyurethane to protect from rain, as this color will reflect more of the sun's rays than than black would. Maybe I'll build some sort of shading device over it, too.
- Bruce
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oneatatime
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Sat Jul 03, 2004 4:07 am
Longer time lapse
Bruce:
I have used K40 for a timelapse project that covered 12 months of construction, I had the camera (Canon 514 XLS) setup to shoot one frame every 10 minutes day and night for the entire 12 months edited out the night shots after scanning to MiniDV, the run time (DVD) is about 12 minutes.
Used about 20 carts with no light leak problems just cap and duct tape over the viewfinder although the Canon came with a plug.
K40 showed no ill affects even though the temperature reached 35C in the enclosure and so was perfect for the task.
Good luck with your garden timelapse .
Cheers
Q
I have used K40 for a timelapse project that covered 12 months of construction, I had the camera (Canon 514 XLS) setup to shoot one frame every 10 minutes day and night for the entire 12 months edited out the night shots after scanning to MiniDV, the run time (DVD) is about 12 minutes.
Used about 20 carts with no light leak problems just cap and duct tape over the viewfinder although the Canon came with a plug.
K40 showed no ill affects even though the temperature reached 35C in the enclosure and so was perfect for the task.
Good luck with your garden timelapse .
Cheers
Q
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oneatatime
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Cranium
- Posts: 388
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- Real name: Mikel Zwissler
- Location: San Francisco
I did this with a construction project (house) a year or two ago. Used a Minolta XL400 with K40. Just used the built-in intervalometer of the Minolta.
Camera was totally exposed to the elements. I screwed a ball-head into a tree and just used a ladder every day to shut the camera off at night.
If I had it to do over, I would try to find a Nizo or Bauer with autom-B setting. The shutter speed of the Minolta timelapse just makes it look like jittery timelapse. I'd rather have as long of a shutter as possible, to simulate motion blur.
I'd also like to find a way to run external power to the camera. THEN I'd like to use a garden light or irrigation timer to turn the cam on/off at the right times. It could then be left fairly unattended.
Doing something like a garden is interesting. I'd probably look for one frame per day out of it, and try to shoot over an entire year to get the entire life cycle. Multiple frames per day will make your playback longer, but it'll be "spurty"
But if you're going to do multiples in a day, just set to the longest interval, like oneatatime did (and I did)
The biggest thing, I think, for what you're doing is to get the frames as close to perfectly timed day-to-day as possible. Like frame 3 is always around noon or something. That way you'll get consistent sun positions, which will change over time, but it'll look cool as the sun sets earlier in winter. Trust me on this!
Having said all of this, my next long-term timelapse will be with a digital still camera. I trust my filmmaking skills, but waiting weeks to find out if everything is going well is a LONG time!
On another note...
I've been considering developing an intervalometer that would run off of a Palm pilot. As these things are like $30 refurbished these days, seems reasonable to me.
How many folks would be interested in something like a hardware/software combo intervalometer that you could use with your Palm? What would you pay to have control over exposure time and rate, and possibly even be able to program in ramp effects?
Camera was totally exposed to the elements. I screwed a ball-head into a tree and just used a ladder every day to shut the camera off at night.
If I had it to do over, I would try to find a Nizo or Bauer with autom-B setting. The shutter speed of the Minolta timelapse just makes it look like jittery timelapse. I'd rather have as long of a shutter as possible, to simulate motion blur.
I'd also like to find a way to run external power to the camera. THEN I'd like to use a garden light or irrigation timer to turn the cam on/off at the right times. It could then be left fairly unattended.
Doing something like a garden is interesting. I'd probably look for one frame per day out of it, and try to shoot over an entire year to get the entire life cycle. Multiple frames per day will make your playback longer, but it'll be "spurty"
But if you're going to do multiples in a day, just set to the longest interval, like oneatatime did (and I did)
The biggest thing, I think, for what you're doing is to get the frames as close to perfectly timed day-to-day as possible. Like frame 3 is always around noon or something. That way you'll get consistent sun positions, which will change over time, but it'll look cool as the sun sets earlier in winter. Trust me on this!
Having said all of this, my next long-term timelapse will be with a digital still camera. I trust my filmmaking skills, but waiting weeks to find out if everything is going well is a LONG time!
On another note...
I've been considering developing an intervalometer that would run off of a Palm pilot. As these things are like $30 refurbished these days, seems reasonable to me.
How many folks would be interested in something like a hardware/software combo intervalometer that you could use with your Palm? What would you pay to have control over exposure time and rate, and possibly even be able to program in ramp effects?
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Alex
As sophisticated as the Nizos and some Eumigs are with time-exposure, neither, as far as I know, will let one do both time-exposure AND a time-gap between each time-exposure shot. This would be essential otherwise the camera will fire off too many shots OR the daytime shots will be overexposed.
It might be possible with some type of external set-up however where in the camera is set to do time exposure in the single frame mode but each new frame is initiated by an external time-exposure device.
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I've heard that the digital still cameras are not very consistent from frame to frame.
It might be possible with some type of external set-up however where in the camera is set to do time exposure in the single frame mode but each new frame is initiated by an external time-exposure device.
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I've heard that the digital still cameras are not very consistent from frame to frame.
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Cranium
- Posts: 388
- Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2002 11:00 pm
- Real name: Mikel Zwissler
- Location: San Francisco
My quick and dirty tests with a D60 show pretty dang good consistency. Certainly consistent enough to shoot one frame per day, given the changes in atmosphere from day to day.
I'm hoping to get up on HWY 280 soon and catch the fog rolling over the hills with it. I just need to crank out my little intervalometer first... ;)
I'm hoping to get up on HWY 280 soon and catch the fog rolling over the hills with it. I just need to crank out my little intervalometer first... ;)
I checked out the thread from last year about intervalometers and I'm excited to see that there are some low-cost options for long term time lapses. The confusing part to me is how to connect the intervalometer to my camera. I've never been able to find any info (probably haven't searched long enough) on how the electromagnetic (?) remote works. It looks like a flash socket, but I don't understand how you would connect these intervalometers to this socket (if I'm looking at the right one). This is a Nizo 4056. Any clues?
Thanks.
Thanks.